1924 composition by George Gershwin
Rhapsody in Blue
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Cover of the original sheet music of
Rhapsody in Blue
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Genre
| Orchestral jazz
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Form
| Rhapsody
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Composed
| January 1924
(
1924-01
)
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Published
| June 12, 1924
(
1924-06-12
)
Harms, Inc.
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Date
| February 12, 1924
(
1924-02-12
)
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Location
| Aeolian Hall
, New York City, US
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Conductor
| Paul Whiteman
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Performers
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Rhapsody in Blue
is a 1924 musical composition written by
George Gershwin
for solo piano and jazz band, which combines elements of
classical music
with
jazz
-influenced effects. Commissioned by bandleader
Paul Whiteman
, the work premiered in a concert titled "An Experiment in Modern Music" on February 12, 1924, in
Aeolian Hall
, New York City.
Whiteman's band performed the rhapsody with Gershwin playing the piano.
Whiteman's arranger
Ferde Grofe
orchestrated
the rhapsody several times including the 1924 original scoring, the 1926
pit orchestra
scoring, and the 1942
symphonic
scoring.
The rhapsody is one of Gershwin's most recognizable creations and a key composition that defined the
Jazz Age
.
Gershwin's piece inaugurated a new era in America's musical history,
established his reputation as an eminent composer and became one of the most popular of all concert works.
In the
American Heritage
magazine, Frederic D. Schwarz posits that the famous opening clarinet
glissando
has become as instantly recognizable to concert audiences as the opening of
Beethoven
's
Fifth Symphony
.
History
[
edit
]
Commission
[
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]
Following the success of an experimental classical-jazz concert held with Canadian singer
Eva Gauthier
in New York City on November 1, 1923, bandleader
Paul Whiteman
decided to attempt a more ambitious feat.
He asked composer
George Gershwin
to write a concerto-like piece for an all-jazz concert in honor of
Lincoln's Birthday
to be given at
Aeolian Hall
.
Whiteman became fixated upon performing such an extended composition by Gershwin after he collaborated with him in
The Scandals of 1922
.
He had been especially impressed by Gershwin's one-act "jazz opera"
Blue Monday
.
Gershwin initially declined Whiteman's request on the grounds that he would have insufficient time to compose the work and there would likely be a need to revise the score.
Soon after, on the evening of January 3, George Gershwin and lyricist
Buddy DeSylva
played a game of
billiards
at the Ambassador Billiard Parlor at
Broadway
and
52nd Street
in Manhattan.
George's brother,
Ira Gershwin
, interrupted their billiard game to read aloud the January 4 edition of the
New-York Tribune
.
An unsigned
Tribune
article entitled "What Is American Music?" about an upcoming Whiteman concert had caught Ira's attention.
The article falsely declared that George Gershwin had begun "work on a jazz concerto" for Whiteman's concert.
The news announcement puzzled Gershwin as he had politely declined to compose any such work for Whiteman.
In a telephone conversation with Whiteman the next morning, Whiteman informed Gershwin that Whiteman's arch rival
Vincent Lopez
planned to steal the idea of his experimental concert and there was no time to lose.
Whiteman thus finally persuaded Gershwin to compose the piece.
Composition
[
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]
With only five weeks remaining until the premiere, Gershwin hurriedly set about composing the work.
He later claimed that, while on a train journey to
Boston
, the thematic seeds for
Rhapsody in Blue
began to germinate in his mind.
He told biographer
Isaac Goldberg
in 1931:
It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang, that is so often so stimulating to a composer.... I frequently hear music in the very heart of the noise. And there I suddenly heard?and even saw on paper?the complete construction of the rhapsody, from beginning to end. No new themes came to me, but I worked on the thematic material already in my mind and tried to conceive the composition as a whole. I heard it as a sort of musical
kaleidoscope
of America, of our vast
melting pot
, of our unduplicated national pep, of our metropolitan madness. By the time I reached Boston I had a definite
plot
of the piece, as distinguished from its actual substance.
Gershwin began composing on January 7 as dated on the original manuscript for two pianos.
He tentatively entitled the piece as
American Rhapsody
during its composition.
Ira Gershwin suggested the revised title of
Rhapsody in Blue
after his visit to a gallery exhibition of
James McNeill Whistler
paintings, which had titles such as
Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket
and
Arrangement in Grey and Black
.
After a few weeks, Gershwin finished his composition and passed the score, titled
A Rhapsody in Blue
, to
Ferde Grofe
, Whiteman's arranger.
Grofe finished
orchestrating
the piece on February 4?a mere eight days before the premiere.
Premiere
[
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]
Rhapsody in Blue
premiered during a snowy Tuesday afternoon on February 12, 1924, at
Aeolian Hall
,
Manhattan
.
Entitled "An Experiment in Modern Music,"
the much-anticipated concert held by Paul Whiteman and his Palais Royal Orchestra drew a packed house.
The excited audience consisted of "
vaudevillians
, concert managers come to have a look at the novelty,
Tin Pan Alleyites
, composers, symphony and opera stars,
flappers
, cake-eaters, all mixed up higgledy-piggledy."
A number of influential figures of the era were present, including
Carl Van Vechten
,
Marguerite d'Alvarez
,
Victor Herbert
,
Walter Damrosch
,
and
Willie "the Lion" Smith
.
In a pre-concert lecture, Whiteman's manager Hugh C. Ernst proclaimed the purpose of the concert to be "purely educational".
Whiteman had selected the music to exemplify the "melodies, harmony and rhythms which agitate the throbbing emotional resources of this young
restless age
."
The concert's lengthy program listed 26 separate musical movements, divided into 2 parts and 11 sections, bearing titles such as "True Form Of Jazz" and "Contrast?Legitimate Scoring vs. Jazzing."
The program's schedule featured Gershwin's rhapsody as merely the
penultimate
piece which preceded
Elgar
's
Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1
.
Many of the early numbers in the program underwhelmed the audience, and the ventilation system in the concert hall malfunctioned.
Some audience members had departed the venue by the time Gershwin made his inconspicuous entrance for the rhapsody.
The audience purportedly were irritable, impatient, and restless until the haunting clarinet
glissando
played the opening notes of
Rhapsody in Blue
.
The distinctive glissando had been created quite by happenstance during rehearsals:
As a joke on Gershwin....
[Ross] Gorman
[Whiteman's virtuoso clarinetist] played the opening
measure
with a noticeable glissando, 'stretching' the notes out and adding what he considered a jazzy, humorous touch to the passage. Reacting favorably to Gorman's whimsy, Gershwin asked him to perform the opening measure that way.... and to add as much of a '
wail
' as possible.
Whiteman's orchestra performed the rhapsody with "twenty-three musicians in the ensemble" and George Gershwin on piano.
In characteristic style, Gershwin chose to partially improvise his piano solo.
The orchestra anxiously waited for Gershwin's nod which signaled the end of his piano solo and the cue for the ensemble to resume playing.
As Gershwin did not write the solo piano section until after the concert, it remains unknown exactly how the original rhapsody sounded at the premiere.
Audience reaction and success
[
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]
Upon the conclusion of the rhapsody, the audience tumultuously applauded Gershwin's composition,
and, quite unexpectedly, "the concert, in every respect but the financial,
[a]
became a 'knockout'."
The concert soon became historically significant due to the premiere of the rhapsody, and its program would "become not only a historic document, finding its way into foreign monographs on jazz, but a rarity as well."
Following the success of the rhapsody's premiere, future performances followed. The first British performance of
Rhapsody in Blue
took place at the
Savoy Hotel
in London on June 15, 1925.
The
BBC
broadcast the performance in a live relay.
Debroy Somers
conducted the
Savoy Orpheans
with Gershwin himself at the piano.
Audiences heard the piece again in the United Kingdom during the second European tour of the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, most notably on April 11, 1926, at the
Royal Albert Hall
, with Gershwin in the audience. The
Gramophone Company
/
HMV
recorded this performance.
By the end of 1927, Whiteman's band had performed
Rhapsody in Blue
approximately 84 times, and its recording sold a million copies.
For the entire piece to fit onto two sides of a
12-inch record
, the rhapsody had to be played at a faster speed than usual in a concert, which gave the recording a hurried feel with noticeably lost
rubato
. Whiteman later adopted the piece as his band's
theme song
and opened his radio programs with the slogan "Everything new but the
Rhapsody in Blue
."
Critical response
[
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]
"This composition shows extraordinary talent, as it shows a young composer with aims that go far beyond those of his ilk, struggling with a form of which he is far from being master.... In spite of all this, he has expressed himself in a significant and, on the whole, highly original form.... His first theme... is no mere dance-tune... it is an idea, or several ideas, correlated and combined in varying and contrasting rhythms that immediately intrigue the listener. The second theme is more after the manner of some of Mr. Gershwin's colleagues.
Tuttis
are too long,
cadenzas
are too long, the peroration at the end loses a large measure of the wildness and magnificence it could easily have had if it were more broadly prepared, and, for all that, the audience was stirred and many a hardened concertgoer excited with the sensation of a new talent finding its voice."
?
Olin Downes
,
The New York Times
, February 1924
In contrast to the warm reception by concert audiences,
music critics gave the rhapsody mixed reviews.
Samuel Chotzinoff, music critic of the
New York World
, conceded that Gershwin's composition had "made an honest woman out of jazz,"
while Henrietta Strauss of
The Nation
opined that Gershwin had "added a new chapter to our musical history."
Olin Downes
, reviewing the concert in
The New York Times
, favorably noted the rhapsody as "a "highly original form", and the composer as a "new talent finding its voice."
Nonetheless, other reviewers were less positive.
Pitts Sanborn
declared that the rhapsody "begins with a promising theme well stated" yet "soon runs off into empty passage-work and meaningless repetition."
A number of reviews were particularly negative.
Lawrence Gilman
?a
Richard Wagner
enthusiast who would later write a devastating review of Gershwin's
Porgy and Bess
?harshly criticized the rhapsody as "derivative," "stale," and "inexpressive" in a
New-York Tribune
review on February 13, 1924.
Overall, professional music critics recurrently criticized Gershwin's piece as essentially formless and asserted that the composer had haphazardly glued melodic segments together.
Retrospective reviews
[
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]
Years after its premiere,
Rhapsody in Blue
continued to divide music critics principally due to its perceived melodic incoherence.
Constant Lambert
, a British composer whose oeuvre often incorporated jazz elements, openly dismissed the work:
The composer [George Gershwin], trying to write a
Lisztian concerto
in a jazz style, has used only the non-barbaric elements in dance music, the result being neither good jazz nor good Liszt, and in no sense of the word a good concerto.
In an article in
The Atlantic Monthly
in 1955,
Leonard Bernstein
, who nevertheless admitted that he adored the piece,
stated:
Rhapsody in Blue
is not a real composition in the sense that whatever happens in it must seem inevitable, or even pretty inevitable. You can cut out parts of it without affecting the whole in any way except to make it shorter. You can remove any of these stuck-together sections and the piece still goes on as bravely as before. You can even interchange these sections with one another and no harm done. You can make cuts within a section, or add new cadenzas, or play it with any combination of instruments or on the piano alone; it can be a five-minute piece or a six-minute piece or a twelve-minute piece. And in fact all these things are being done to it every day. It's still the
Rhapsody in Blue
.
Orchestration
[
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]
As Gershwin did not have sufficient knowledge of orchestration in 1924,
Whiteman's pianist and chief arranger
Ferde Grofe
played a key role in the rhapsody's meteoric success,
and scholars have contended that Grofe's arrangements of the
Rhapsody
secured its place in
American culture
.
Gershwin's biographer, Isaac Goldberg, noted in 1931 that Grofe played a crucial role in the premiere's triumph:
In the heat of the occasion, the contribution of Ferdie Grofe, the arranger on the Whiteman staff who had scored the
Rhapsody
in ten days, was overlooked or ignored. It is true that an appreciable part of the scoring had been indicated by Gershwin; nevertheless, the contribution of Grofe was of prime importance, not only to the composition, but to the jazz scoring of the immediate future.
Grofe hastily arranged the famous 1924 score to take full advantage of the Whiteman orchestra's particular strengths.
He developed this orchestration for solo piano and Whiteman's twenty-three musicians.
For the reeds section, Ross Gorman (Reed I) played an oboe, a
heckelphone
, a clarinet in B
♭
,
sopranino saxophones
in E
♭
& B
♭
, an
alto saxophone
, one E
♭
soprano clarinet, and
alto
and
bass clarinets
; Donald Clark (Reed II) played a soprano saxophone in B
♭
, alto and
baritone saxophones
, and Hale Byers (Reed III) played soprano saxophone in B
♭
,
tenor saxophone
, baritone saxophone, and a
flute
.
For the brass section, two trumpets in B
♭
were played by Henry Busse and Frank Siegrist; two French horns in F were played by Arturo Cerino and Al Corrado; two trombones were played by Roy Maxon and James Casseday, and a tuba and a double bass played by Guss Helleburg and Alus Armer respectively.
The percussion section included a
drum set
,
timpani
, and a
glockenspiel
played by George Marsh; one piano typically played by either Ferde Grofe or Henry Lange; one
tenor banjo
played by Michael Pingatore, and a complement of violins.
Musicologists largely ignored this original arrangement?with its unique instrumental requirements?until its revival in reconstructions beginning in the mid-1980s, owing to the popularity and serviceability of the later scorings.
After the 1924 premiere, Grofe revised the score and made new orchestrations in 1926 and 1942, each time for larger orchestras.
He published his arrangement for a theater orchestra in 1926.
Grofe orchestrated this adaptation for a more standard "
pit orchestra
," which included one flute, one oboe, two clarinets, one bassoon, three saxophones; two French horns, two trumpets, and two trombones; as well as the same percussion and strings complement as the later 1942 version.
Grofe later produced a 1942 arrangement for a full
symphony orchestra
. It is scored for solo piano and an orchestra consisting of two flutes, two oboes, two
clarinets in B
♭
and A
, one
bass clarinet
, two bassoons, two alto saxophones in E
♭
, one tenor saxophone in B
♭
; three French horns in F, three trumpets in B
♭
, three trombones, one tuba; a percussion section that includes timpani, one
suspended cymbal
, one
snare drum
, one
bass drum
, one
tam-tam
, one
triangle
, one glockenspiel, and
cymbals
; one tenor banjo; and
strings
. Since the mid-20th century, the 1942 arrangement became a staple of the concert repertoire until 1976 when
Michael Tilson Thomas
recorded the original jazz band version for the first time, employing Gershwin's actual 1925 piano roll with a full jazz orchestra.
Grofe's other arrangements of Gershwin's piece include those done for Whiteman's 1930 film,
King of Jazz
,
and the concert band setting (playable without piano) completed by 1938 and published 1942. The prominence of the saxophones in the later orchestrations is somewhat reduced, and the banjo part can be dispensed with, as its mainly rhythmic contribution is provided by the inner strings.
Gershwin himself made versions of the piece for solo piano as well as two pianos.
The solo version is notable for omitting several sections of the piece.
[b]
Gershwin's intent to eventually do an orchestration of his own is documented in 1936?37 correspondence from the publisher
Harms
.
Notable recordings
[
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]
After the warm reception of
Rhapsody in Blue
by the audience at Aeolian Hall, Gershwin recorded several abridged versions of his composition in different formats.
On June 10, 1924, Gershwin and Whiteman's orchestra created an
acoustic recording
running 8 minutes and 59 seconds and issued by the
Victor Talking Machine Company
.
[c]
A year later, Gershwin recorded his performance on a 1925
piano roll
for a two-piano version.
Later, on April 21, 1927, he made an
electrical recording
with Whiteman's orchestra running 9 minutes and 1 second and again recorded by Victor.
[d]
Nathaniel Shilkret
purportedly conducted the electrical recording after a dispute between Gershwin and Whiteman.
Whiteman's orchestra later performed a truncated version of the piece in the 1930 film
The King of Jazz
with
Roy Bargy
on piano.
Due to the length limitations of early recording formats, the first complete and unabridged recording of Gershwin's composition did not occur until the
Great Depression
. In July 1935, after several years of performing the rhapsody for sold-out audiences in
Massachusetts
,
[75]
conductor
Arthur Fiedler
and the
Boston Pops Orchestra
recorded the first unabridged version?nearly fourteen minutes in length?with
Puerto Rican
pianist
Jesus Maria Sanroma
for
RCA Victor
.
[e]
For this first unabridged recording, Fiedler discarded Ferde Grofe's original 1924 arrangement and adapted the piece for a conventional symphony.
[77]
At the time, contemporary critics praised Fiedler for jettisoning the so-called "jazzy sentimentality" of Grofe's earlier arrangement and adding a "more symphonic richness and authority."
During the final months of
World War II
, amid the box-office success of the Gershwin biographical film
Rhapsody in Blue
(1945), pianist
Oscar Levant
recorded the now iconic composition with
Eugene Ormandy
's
Philadelphia Orchestra
on August 21, 1945.
Levant had been an intimate friend of the deceased composer,
[80]
and he sought to replicate Gershwin's idiomatic playing style in his performance.
[82]
Levant's homage?labelled Columbia Masterworks 251?received rapturous reviews and became one of the best-selling record albums of the year.
As a result of Levant's recording and the 1945 biographical film about Gershwin's life, a "Gershwin revival" ensued.
By the 1960s and 1970s, Gershwin's rhapsody had become a predictable staple of both concert performances and orchestra recordings; consequently, more diverse and irreverent interpretations appeared over time. In Summer 1973, Brazilian
jazz-rock
artist
Eumir Deodato
reinterpreted
Gershwin's rhapsody in an abridged version that featured
uptempo
neo?
samba
rhythms.
Although music critics derided Deodato's interpretation as "mangled" and barely recognizable,
[85]
his single reached No. 41 on the "Hot 100" and No. 10 on "Easy Listening" on the
Billboard
charts
,
and No. 48 and No. 13 respectively in Canada.
[87]
[88]
In the wake of Deodato's earlier reinterpretation, French pianist
Richard Clayderman
recorded a similarly abridged
disco
arrangement in 1978 which became one of his signature pieces.
[89]
Concurrent with the emergence of these more diverse interpretations, scholarly interest revived in the original 1924 arrangement by Ferde Grofe which had not been performed since the end of the Jazz Age. On February 14, 1973, conductor
Kenneth Kiesler
and pianist Paul Verrette performed Grofe's original arrangement on the
University of New Hampshire
campus.
Soon after, conductor
Michael Tilson Thomas
and the
Columbia Jazz Band
recorded Grofe's arrangement in 1976, as did conductor
Maurice Peress
with pianist
Ivan Davis
in 1984 as part of a 60th-anniversary reconstruction of the entire 1924 concert.
One hundred years after the debut of Gershwin's rhapsody in 1924, tens of thousands of orchestras as well as solo pianists have recorded the piece, both abridged and unabridged. A number of these recordings have garnered critical recognition such as pianist
Michel Camilo
's 2006 rendition which won a
Latin Grammy Award
.
Form and analysis
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]
As a jazz concerto,
Rhapsody in Blue
is written for solo piano with orchestra.
A
rhapsody
differs from a concerto in that it features one extended movement instead of separate movements. Rhapsodies often incorporate passages of an improvisational nature?although written out in a score?and are irregular in form, with heightened contrasts and emotional exuberance. The music ranges from intensely rhythmic
piano solos
to slow, broad, and richly orchestrated sections. Consequently, the
Rhapsody
"may be looked upon as a
fantasia
, with no strict fidelity to form."
The opening of
Rhapsody in Blue
is written as a clarinet
trill
followed by a legato, 17 notes in a diatonic scale. During a rehearsal, Whiteman's virtuoso clarinetist, Ross Gorman, rendered the upper portion of the scale as a captivating and trombone-like
glissando
.
Gershwin heard it and insisted that it be repeated in the performance.
The effect is produced using the tongue and throat muscles to change the resonance of the oral cavity, thus controlling the continuously rising pitch.
Many clarinet players gradually open the left-hand
tone holes
on their instrument during the passage from the last concert F to the top concert B
♭
as well. This effect has now become standard performance practice for the work.
Rhapsody in Blue
features both rhythmic invention and melodic inspiration, and demonstrates Gershwin's ability to write a piece with large-scale harmonic and melodic structure. The piece is characterized by strong
motivic inter-relatedness
.
Much of the motivic material is introduced in the first 14
measures
.
Musicologist
David Schiff
has identified five major themes plus a sixth "tag".
Two themes appear in the first 14 measures, and the tag shows up in measure 19.
Two of the remaining three themes are rhythmically related to the first theme in measure 2, which is sometimes called the "Glissando theme"?after the opening
glissando
in the clarinet solo?or the "Ritornello theme".
The remaining theme is the "Train theme",
which is the first to appear at rehearsal 9 after the opening material.
All of these themes rely on the
blues scale
,
which includes lowered sevenths and a mixture of major and minor thirds.
Each theme appears both in orchestrated form and as a piano solo. There are considerable differences in the style of presentation of each theme.
A 2018 piano solo cover of Gershwin's
Rhapsody in Blue
The
harmonic structure
of the rhapsody is more difficult to analyze.
The piece begins and ends in B
♭
major, but it modulates towards the sub-dominant direction and abruptly returns to B
♭
major at the end.
The opening modulates "downward" through the keys B
♭
, E
♭
, A
♭
, D
♭
, G
♭
, B, E, and finally to A major.
Modulation through the circle of fifths in the reverse direction inverts classical tonal relationships, but does not abandon them. The entire middle section resides primarily in C major, with forays into G major (the dominant relation).
Such modulations occur freely, although not always with harmonic direction. Gershwin frequently uses a recursive
harmonic progression
of minor thirds to give the illusion of motion when in fact a passage does not change key from beginning to end.
Modulation by thirds is a common feature of
Tin Pan Alley
music.
The influences of jazz and other contemporary styles are present in
Rhapsody in Blue
.
Ragtime
rhythms are abundant,
as is the Cuban "
clave
" rhythm, which doubles as a dance rhythm in the
Charleston
jazz dance.
Gershwin's own intentions were to correct the belief that jazz had to be played strictly in time so that one could dance to it.
The rhapsody's tempos vary widely, and there is an almost extreme use of
rubato
in many places throughout. The clearest influence of jazz is the use of
blue notes
, and the exploration of their half-step relationship plays a key role in the rhapsody.
The use of so-called "vernacular" instruments, such as
accordion
,
banjo
, and saxophones in the orchestra, contribute to its jazz or popular style, and the latter two of these instruments have remained part of Grofe's "standard" orchestra scoring.
Gershwin incorporated different piano styles into his work. He used the techniques of
stride piano
,
novelty piano
, comic piano, and the
song-plugger
piano style. Stride piano's rhythmic and improvisational style is evident in the "agitato e misterioso" section, which begins four bars after rehearsal 33, as well as in other sections, many of which include the orchestra.
Novelty piano can be heard at rehearsal 9 with the revelation of the Train theme. The hesitations and light-hearted style of comic piano, a
vaudeville
approach to piano made well known by
Chico Marx
, are evident at rehearsal 22.
Legacy and influence
[
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]
Cultural zeitgeist
[
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]
Gerswhin's work has been cited by writers and scholars as embodying the
Jazz Age
's
zeitgeist
with its
flappers
and
speakeasies
.
Above:
Patrons and a flapper await the opening of a speakeasy in 1921.
With the debut of
Rhapsody in Blue
, Gershwin inaugurated a new era in America's musical history.
He established his reputation as one of the eminent composers of the
Jazz Age
, and his composition eventually became one of the most popular of all concert works.
In the
American Heritage
magazine, Frederic D. Schwarz posits that the famous opening clarinet
glissando
has become as instantly recognizable to concert audiences as the opening of
Beethoven
's
Fifth Symphony
.
According to critic Orrin Howard of the
Los Angeles Philharmonic
, Gershwin's rhapsody made an indelible mark "on the fraternity of serious composers and performers?many of whom were present at the premiere?and on Gershwin himself, for its enthusiastic reception encouraged him to other and more serious projects."
Howard posits that the work's legacy is best understood as embodying the cultural
zeitgeist
of the Jazz Age:
Beginning with that incomparable, flamboyant clarinet solo,
Rhapsody
is irresistible still, with its syncopated rhythmic vibrancy, its abandoned, impudent flair that tells more about the
Roaring Twenties
than could a thousand words, and its genuine melodic beauty colored a deep, jazzy blue by the flatted sevenths and thirds that had their origins in the
African-American slave songs
.
Although Gershwin's rhapsody is "by no means a definitive example of jazz in the Jazz Age,"
music historians such as James Ciment and
Floyd Levin
have similarly concurred that it is the key composition that encapsulates the spirit of the era.
As early as 1927, writer
F. Scott Fitzgerald
opined that
Rhapsody in Blue
idealized the youthful zeitgeist of the Jazz Age.
In subsequent decades, both the latter era and Fitzgerald's related literary works have been often culturally linked by critics and scholars with Gershwin's composition.
In 1941, social historian
Peter Quennell
opined that Fitzgerald's novel
The Great Gatsby
embodied "the sadness and the remote jauntiness of a Gershwin tune."
Accordingly, director
Baz Luhrmann
used
Rhapsody in Blue
as a dramatic
leitmotif
for the character of
Jay Gatsby
in his 2013 film
The Great Gatsby
, a cinematic adaptation of Fitzgerald's 1925 novel.
Various writers, such as the American playwright and journalist
Terry Teachout
, have likened Gershwin himself to the character of Gatsby due to his attempt to transcend his lower-class background, his abrupt meteoric success, and his early death while in his thirties.
Musical portrait of New York City
[
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]
Rhapsody in Blue
has been interpreted as a musical portrait of early-20th-century New York City.
Culture scribe Darryn King wrote in
The Wall Street Journal
that "Gershwin's fusion of jazz and classical traditions captures the thriving
melting pot
of Jazz Age New York."
Likewise, music historian
Vince Giordano
has opined that "the
syncopation
, the blue notes, the ragtime and jazz rhythms that Gershwin wrote in 1924 was really a feeling of New York City in that amazing era. The rhythm of the city seems to be in there."
Pianist
Lang Lang
echoes this sentiment: "When I hear
Rhapsody in Blue
, I see the
Empire State Building
somehow. I see the
New York Skyline
in midtown Manhattan, and I already see the coffee shops [in]
Times Square
."
Accordingly, the opening montage of
Woody Allen
's 1979 film
Manhattan
features a rendition by
Zubin Mehta
in which quintessential New York scenes are set to the music of Gershwin's famed jazz concerto.
Twenty years later,
Walt Disney Pictures
used the composition for the New York segment of the 1999 animated film
Fantasia 2000
, in which the piece lyrically frames an animated segment drawn in the style of illustrator
Al Hirschfeld
.
Influence on composers
[
edit
]
Gershwin's rhapsody has influenced a number of composers. In 1955,
Rhapsody in Blue
inspired accordionist
John Serry Sr.
to compose his 1957 work
American Rhapsody
.
Brian Wilson
, leader of
The Beach Boys
, stated on several occasions that
Rhapsody in Blue
is one of his favorite pieces. He first heard the piece as a two-year-old and recalled that he adored it.
According to biographer
Peter Ames Carlin
, the rhapsody influenced Wilson's
Smile
album.
Rhapsody in Blue
also inspired a collaboration between blind savant British pianist
Derek Paravicini
and composer
Matthew King
on a new concerto, called
Blue
premiered at the
South Bank Centre
in London in 2011.
Other uses
[
edit
]
At the opening ceremony of the
1984 Summer Olympics
in Los Angeles, 84 pianists played simultaneously
Rhapsody in Blue
in an ensemble performance.
Pianists
Herbie Hancock
and
Lang Lang
performed
Rhapsody in Blue
at the
50th Grammy Awards
on February 10, 2008.
Since 1980, the piece has been used by
United Airlines
in their advertisements, in pre-flight safety videos, and in the Terminal 1 underground walkway at
Chicago O'Hare International Airport
.
Rhapsody in Blue
was sampled in
Ben Folds Five
's "
Philosophy
"
[124]
and South Korean girl group
Red Velvet
's "
Birthday
".
[125]
Preservation status
[
edit
]
On September 22, 2013, the Gershwin estate announced that a
musicological
critical edition
of the full orchestral score will be eventually released. The Gershwin family, working in conjunction with the
Library of Congress
and the
University of Michigan
, are working to make these scores available to the public.
Though the entire Gershwin project may take 40 years to complete, the
Rhapsody in Blue
edition will be an early volume.
Rhapsody in Blue
entered the
public domain on January 1, 2020
, although individual recordings of it may remain under copyright.
References
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Paul Whiteman gave away free tickets to promote the concert and lost money.
He expended $11,000, and the concert netted $4,000.
- ^
Omissions include the bars from rehearsal mark 14 to halfway through the fifth bar of rh. 18; from two bars before rh. 22 to the fourth bar of rh. 24; and the first four bars of rh. 38.
- ^
Victor 55225 is the June 10, 1924, acoustic recording with the original clarinetist, Ross Gorman, performing the opening glissando.
- ^
Victor 35822 is the April 21, 1927, electrical recording in which
Nathaniel Shilkret
conducted the orchestra and later
dubbed
onto an
RCA Victor
33
+
1
⁄
3
-rpm.
- ^
Fiedler and the Boston Pops made another popular recording of the work in
stereophonic sound
with
Earl Wild
at the piano for RCA Victor in 1959.
Citations
[
edit
]
- ^
The New York Times
1932
: "Despite the depression, the Boston 'Pops' have been astonishingly successful this season, sold-out houses being an almost nightly circumstance."
- ^
Moore 1935
, p. 7: "This piece, introduced a decade ago by Paul Whiteman, speedily grew so popular that another version had to be made, changing from the Whiteman instrumentation to that of the conventional symphony orchestra, which is the case here."
- ^
Tampa Bay Times
1945
, p. 35: "Levant was a close friend of Gershwin and was a wise choice to do the thrilling new recording of the Rhapsody. Levant's interpretation is fiery and brilliant."
- ^
Cassidy 1945
, p. 11: "Oscar Levant ghosts Gershwin's playing, and he comes closer than anyone else to recapturing what sometimes seems to have been a one man idiom."
- ^
Palmer 1973
: "
Rhapsody
resembles the Gershwin original only when strings and horns interrupt extended guitar and keyboard solos with fragments of the work's principal themes. The solos are played over up?tempo neo?samba rhythms.... these long improvisational sections have little to do with the thematic material which is inserted here and there".
- ^
"RPM Top 100 Singles - October 6, 1973"
(PDF)
.
- ^
"RPM Top AC - October 27, 1973"
(PDF)
.
- ^
Mazey 1985
: "Clayderman butchered Gershwin's intoxicating
Rhapsody in Blue
, for example, with a pulsing disco beat. If they ever do a record called
Hooked on Gershwin
, Clayderman is their man."
- ^
King, Darryn (June 12, 2015).
"Ben Folds's latest project pays homage to Gershwin, 'the Elton John of his day'
"
.
The Guardian
. Retrieved
November 29,
2020
.
- ^
Lipshutz, Jason; Lynch, Joe; Bowenbank, Starr; Havens, Lyndsey (November 28, 2022).
"10 Cool New Pop Songs to Get You Through The Week: Red Velvet, Alan Walker, Julia Pratt & More"
.
Billboard
.
Archived
from the original on December 1, 2022
. Retrieved
December 1,
2022
.
Works cited
[
edit
]
Print sources
[
edit
]
- "A Concert of Syncopated Symphonic Music"
.
Radio Times
. No. 90. London, England. June 12, 1925. p. 538
. Retrieved
June 17,
2020
.
- Banagale, Ryan Raul (2014).
Arranging Gershwin:
Rhapsody in Blue
and the Creation of an American Icon
. Oxford, England:
Oxford University Press
.
doi
:
10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199978373.001.0001
.
ISBN
978-0-19-997837-3
.
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.
The Billboard
. Vol. 57, no. 35. September 1, 1945. p. 24
. Retrieved
November 10,
2020
.
- "Billboard Top 50 Easy Listening (1973)"
.
The Billboard
. Vol. 85, no. 38. September 22, 1973. pp. 27, 56
. Retrieved
February 21,
2022
.
- "Boston's 'Pop' Concerts"
.
The New York Times
. New York City. June 22, 1932. p. 4X
. Retrieved
February 21,
2022
.
- Carlin, Peter Ames
(2006).
Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson
. London:
Rodale
.
ISBN
978-1-59486-899-3
.
- Ciment, James (2015) [2008].
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.
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.
ISBN
978-1-317-47165-3
. Retrieved
October 20,
2020
.
- Colford, Paul D. (October 9, 1985).
"He's Almost World Famous: Meet Richard Clayderman, 'the world's most popular pianist'
"
.
Newsday
. Melville, New York. p. 131
. Retrieved
February 21,
2022
– via Newspapers.com.
- "Columbia, Victor Dedicates Albums to Gershwin"
.
Tampa Bay Times
. St. Petersburg, Florida. July 29, 1945. p. 35
. Retrieved
February 21,
2022
– via Newspapers.com.
- Eldred v. Ashcroft
,
01 U.S. 618
, p. 67 (
United States Supreme Court
January 15, 2003) ("Even the $500,000 that United Airlines has had to pay for the right to play George Gershwin's 1924 classic
Rhapsody in Blue
represents a cost of doing business, potentially reflected in the ticket prices of those who fly.").
- Ferencz, George J.
(2011).
"
Porgy and Bess
on the Concert Stage: Gershwin's 1936 Suite (
Catfish Row
) and the 1942 Gershwin?Bennett
Symphonic Picture
"
.
The Musical Quarterly
.
94
(1?2): 93?155.
doi
:
10.1093/musqtl/gdq019
.
ISSN
1741-8399
.
JSTOR
41289202
.
Reissuance of
The Rhapsody in Blue
re-scored by yourself for large symphony orchestra
- Fitzgerald, F. Scott
(2004).
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.
Jackson, Mississippi
:
University Press of Mississippi
.
ISBN
978-1-57806-605-6
.
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New Haven, Connecticut
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Yale University Press
.
ISBN
978-0-300-06233-5
.
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(1958) [1931].
George Gershwin: A Study in American Music
. New York:
Frederick Ungar Publishing Company
.
LCCN
58-11627
– via
Internet Archive
.
- Greenberg, Rodney (1998).
George Gershwin
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Phaidon Press
.
ISBN
978-0-7148-3504-4
.
- Jablonski, Edward
(1992).
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Portland, Oregon
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Amadeus Press
.
ISBN
0-931340-43-8
.
- Jenkins, Alan (1974).
The Twenties
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ISBN
978-0-434-90894-3
. Retrieved
August 1,
2020
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- Levin, Floyd
(April 30, 2002).
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. University of California Press.
ISBN
978-0-520-23463-5
. Retrieved
November 10,
2020
.
- Mazey, Steve (September 19, 1985).
"
'Elevator' pianist bland, lacks vitality, passion"
.
The Ottawa Citizen
. Ottawa, Ontario
. Retrieved
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2022
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(April 24, 1960).
"Gatsby, 35 Years Later"
.
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2021
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"New Musical Records Skim Many Moods"
.
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2022
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- Palmer, Robert (August 26, 1973).
"Recordings: Pop/Jazz Meets Classical Rock"
.
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. New York City. p. 22D
. Retrieved
February 21,
2022
.
- Rayno, Don (2013).
Paul Whiteman: Pioneer in American Music, Volume II: 1930?1967
.
Scarecrow Press
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ISBN
978-0-8108-8204-1
.
- Reef, Catherine (2000).
George Gershwin: American Composer
.
Greensboro, North Carolina
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ISBN
978-1-883846-58-9
.
- Rust, Brian
(1975).
The American Dance Band Discography 1917?1942
. Vol. 2.
New Rochelle, New York
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Arlington House
.
ISBN
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- Schiff, David
(1997).
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
. Cambridge, England:
Cambridge University Press
.
doi
:
10.1017/CBO9780511620201
.
ISBN
978-0-521-55077-2
– via
Internet Archive
.
- Schneider, Wayne, ed. (1999).
The Gershwin Style: New Looks at the Music of George Gershwin
. Oxford, England:
Oxford University Press
.
ISBN
978-0-19-509020-8
.
- Schwartz, Charles (1979).
Gershwin: His Life and Music
. New York:
Da Capo Press
.
ISBN
978-0-306-80096-2
– via
Internet Archive
.
- Serry, John
(1957). American Rhapsody, Copyright: Alpha Music Co (Report). Washington, D.C.:
Library of Congress Copyright Office
.
- Sherman, John K. (October 26, 1935).
"Gershwin Rhapsody Vividly Interpreted"
.
The Minneapolis Star
. Minneapolis, Minnesota. p. 34 – via Newspapers.com.
- Slonimsky, Nicolas
(2000) [1953].
Lexicon of Musical Invective: Critical Assaults on Composers Since Beethoven's Time
. New York:
W. W. Norton & Company
.
ISBN
978-0-393-32009-1
.
- Smith, Wayne A. (January 27, 1973). "Around the Clock: Rhapsody Revived".
The Greenfield Recorder
.
Greenfield, Massachusetts
. p. 10.
- Sultanof, Jeff, ed. (1987).
Rhapsody in Blue: Commemorative Facsimile Edition
.
Secaucus, New Jersey
:
Warner Brothers Music
.
This reproduces Grofe's holograph manuscript from the Gershwin Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress.
- Wood, Ean (1996).
George Gershwin: His Life and Music
. London: Sanctuary Publishing.
ISBN
978-1-86074-174-6
.
- Wyatt, Robert
; Johnson, John Andrew, eds. (2004). "Leonard Bernstein: "Why Don't You Run Upstairs and Write a Nice Gershwin Tune?" (1955)".
The George Gershwin Reader: Readers on American Musicians
. Oxford, England:
Oxford University Press
.
ISBN
978-0-19-802985-4
.
Online sources
[
edit
]
- "Blind Autistic Man Stuns the Music World"
.
BBC News
. London, England. September 28, 2011
. Retrieved
January 24,
2019
.
- Cassidy, Claudia (July 31, 1945).
"On the Record: Levant's 'Rhapsody in Blue' Best of Current Crop of Gershwin Record Albums"
.
The Chicago Tribune
. p. 11
. Retrieved
February 21,
2022
– via Newspapers.com.
- Canty, Cynthia (October 21, 2013).
"The University of Michigan Was Selected for the 'Gershwin Initiative'
"
.
Ann Arbor, Michigan
:
Michigan Radio
. Retrieved
August 30,
2015
.
- Clague, Mark (September 21, 2013).
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.
Musicology Now
. New York City:
American Musicological Society
. Retrieved
May 31,
2021
.
- Clague, Mark; Getman, Jessica (2015).
"The Editions"
. The Gershwin Initiative.
Ann Arbor, Michigan
:
University of Michigan
. Archived from
the original
on September 5, 2015
. Retrieved
August 30,
2015
.
- Chen, Jer Ming; Smith, John (2008).
"How to Play the First Bar of
Rhapsody in Blue
"
.
Acoustical Society of America
. Archived from
the original
on April 25, 2013
. Retrieved
April 28,
2013
.
- Cooper, Michael (September 15, 2016).
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.
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. Retrieved
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2020
.
- Cowen, Ron
(1998).
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.
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. Retrieved
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2015
.
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(February 13, 1924).
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.
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. p. 16
. Retrieved
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.
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on February 23, 2005
. Retrieved
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.
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(1999).
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. Retrieved
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'Rhapsody In Blue' at 90"
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Like a train, Gershwin's sprawling composition had more moving parts than Whiteman had musicians, even augmented with strings, but the band was so versatile that three reed players managed to play a total of 17 parts, including the oboe-like heckelphone, switching as the music dictated.
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2020
.
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[
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]
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